


If I let you catch me

by Lunik



Category: Norse Mythology
Genre: 5 Things, Angst, Bromance, Community: norsekink, Gen, Genderqueer Character, M/M, Ragnarok, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-21
Updated: 2011-10-21
Packaged: 2017-10-24 20:31:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/267583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunik/pseuds/Lunik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So it goes like this -- Loki angers the gods, and then he runs. There is only one man in all the realms who can catch him with the wind at his heels. Naturally, he and Thor are the best of friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Odin's hall is in near ruins after a series of whispered words and allegations set Odin's finest warriors brawling like mortals. No one can agree on who spoke the words that enraged them so, but Odin's wife has the Sight, and has told Thor where he can go to hunt down the perpetrator._

\---

He was barely more than a boy, Thor saw with horror. He didn't even have a beard. Just a skinny young man sitting cross legged on the lowest branch of a Midgardian tree, his hair in curls and his clothes in tatters. He was drinking from a skin, and gave no sign that he had even heard Thor approach.

Thor reached the very roots of the tree before realising he was being wilfully ignored, and scowled. One did not ignore the god of thunder. He hefted his war hammer and called in his most intimidating voice, "You!"

The young man up above sprang to his feet on the branch, crouching down to peer at Thor like some treebound forest imp. He grinned widely. "And you!" he cried. "Hello, you!"

"You are the one responsible for the destruction of Odin's hall!" growled Thor. The wretch in the tree scratched his chin quizzically.

"Destruction? No, I don't think that could have been me. I'm terribly bad at destroying halls, see. Don't have the muscle tone for it."

Thor snarled. The young man's smile was wide and innocent and _mocking him_. "You will come down from that tree and face the Allfather's justice!"

The man pretended to think again. "You say you've come from _Odin's_ hall? Then I'm afraid I'll have to decline. With regret, I will remain in my tree."

"I am Thor, god of Thunder!" Thor roared, "And you will come down from there!"

"Pleased to meet you, Thor god of Thunder!" beamed the little troll. "I am Loki, god of... other things! Let us say I am the god of Mischief. And of 'not destroying halls'. It was someone else who did tha-- Ahh!"

He was cut off in mid-sentence by Thor drawing his hammer back to swing it at the trunk of the tree. All it did was to shake the branches and send up a few splinters - Thor knew he needed a better hammer than this one - but it caused Loki to squawk in indignation. "What are you doing? This is a sacred oak, it's older than I am! It is a beautiful tree, you can't--"

Thor pulled back and swung again and this one did its work. The trunk gave a great creaking groan as it split and the tree began to upend itself. Thor took two steps back to meet the branch on which Loki fought to stay balanced.

Loki landed on his feet, and Thor caught hold of his shoulder before he managed to straighten from his crouch. But Loki swung around to face him and threw up the hand that still held his water skin. The skin burst in Thor's face and he cursed. Whatever was in that skin, it was not water, and Loki had _not_ been drinking it. It was a trick, and Thor's eyes burned.

He released Loki to try and rub the stinging liquid from his face, and Loki's body immediately split into a thousand pieces, streaming around Thor and through his uselessly grabbing hands. Seidmadr. That would explain why Loki wore no beard. The dark spots and flittering wings that were Loki flew in a cloud, away from Thor and into the woods.

But Thor had been warned to expect trickery. He roared and slapped the ground, releasing the power he had kept stored since stepping into the clearing. A ring of lightning formed, casting white-blue light on the trunks of all the trees. Thor heard a high cry and Loki's body, whole again, thudded into the ground.

Thor dragged himself to his feet, willing his blurred vision to clear, and advanced on the seidmadr. Loki gripped his elbows to still the shaking of his body and stared. "You caught me!" he said in astonishment. "No one's ever caught me before!"

He didn't look afraid, and Thor could respect that. Loki backed up a few steps, coming up against the crackling in the air that told him what would happen if he tried to run again. Thor lifted his hammer. "I do have more tricks, you know." Loki said.

"I would love to see them, trickster," grinned Thor. Loki laughed in reply.

"I know you would. Maybe there's something else I could give you, though? You could drag me back to Odin in chains, or... you could let me escape, and I could repay your kindness with my body." He licked his lips with a filthy grin.

It was Thor's turn to laugh. "These are unworthy tricks that I would expect of a seidmadr." He couldn't help licking his lips in a mirror of Loki's, though, and his eyes dipped to the fluttering rags Loki wore.

The moment he looked away Loki burst into motion, sprinting toward Thor and ducking under his arm. Not quick enough though - Thor caught him in flight, slamming him down against the felled tree trunk and held him there. He twisted one of Loki's arms up behind his back, held the other over his head and used his weight to pin the smaller man down. Loki struggled, but only for bare seconds as he realised he was outmatched.

"Damn," he said quietly, then laughed. "Ahh... so you _are_ interested!"

Thor chuckled without shame, secure that Loki wouldn't get another chance to run. "Perhaps I am," he said into the shell of Loki's ear. "But I have a wife."

"And does she satisfy you, Thor?"

Thor couldn't quite resist moving, letting the evidence of his interest grind against Loki. "...better than you could, god of Mischief."

"Oh." Loki sounded disappointed. "Back to Odin's hall, then?"

Thor stood, pulling Loki up with him, wrist still held securely in his hand. "To face justice."

Loki smiled ruefully, and nodded. "All right."


	2. Chapter 2

_Half the forests of Asgard lie in flames and ashes, because Loki was curious and hatched the last of the firebirds that should still lie dormant in its shell. Thor is not amused. But he laughs, because it is Loki, and Loki is strange and wild and sometimes wonderful._

\---

"You're going to let me go this time." Loki shifted, limited in his movement by the enchanted ropes that bound his seidr, and his arms in the small of his back. He managed to push himself a few inches up the boulder against which he leaned, and sought to convey that this was the most comfortable he had ever been. Thor suppressed a smirk.

"What makes you say that, mischief monger?"

"This wasn't mischief," Loki corrected quickly, "It was just an accident." Thor shrugged. He didn't see a difference. "And you're going to let me go because I've figured out how to play you."

Thor snorted. Loki hadn't figured out a thing. He just liked to pretend he had, to amuse himself and make Thor laugh, and it usually ended in a clumsy attempt to seduce him. Thor suspected Loki wasn't even trying to talk his way into Thor's bed, not really. But it was Loki's way to disguise his real intentions under layers of lies, and it was too much trouble for Thor to try and puzzle him out.

"You, God of Thunder, are a good man," Loki continued. "All sorts of noble and well countenanced. You wouldn't let harm come to an innocent." Thor scoffed, and looked around him exaggeratedly, _where's the innocent?_ Loki ignored him. "And Odin's punishments are always so _harsh_. I do fear it might harm the baby if you were to place me at his mercy."

Thor froze. Loki was in a pose of such calculated vulnerability, sprawled against the boulder, face turned to the sky, watching Thor darkly out of the corner of his eye. If he could have had the back of his hand pressed to his brow, he would have. "You are not with child," Thor said flatly.

Loki broke into a wicked grin. "Oh, I am," he said.

It would not be Loki's first pregnancy. Seidmadrs bore children regardless of their gender, all of them beasts or cripples. Loki never seemed to care much for his offspring, at least not after they were born - he mostly set them free in the forests - but Thor had seen him pregnant before. Had sat next to him once, when Loki had claimed he was too scared to give birth alone, and had helped him dispose of the child, some kind of fish, in a nearby lake. Thor never asked too much about the origin of the children, because he had never wanted to know. He regarded Loki suspiciously. "...How?" he asked.

"You remember this summer? When that giant fellow was building the wall in Asgard?" Thor remembered. Loki had lost friends in Asgard with his cavalier treatment of Freyja's predicament, and not gained them back even after he resolved the problem. "You remember how Odin decided that the best way for me to distract the man from his work was to be repeatedly raped by his horse?"

Thor winced. "I recall that it was _your_ plan to shift into a mare and seduce the workhorse, not Odin's."

Loki pushed himself to sit cross-legged. "Yes, yes, it makes little difference whose idea it was. Odin chose not to admit he had made a mistake in his negotiations, so Loki was bred by a horse."

"All right, yes. I remember." Thor waited for Loki to continue his explanation, and looked over to see Loki watching him with a kindly look. Like Thor was just a little slow. "What," he said, horrified, "The horse is the father of your child?"

"Svadilfari," said Loki. "Its name was Svadlfari. The creature told me, in the language of beasts, while it..." Loki's eyes turned distant and hunted for just a bare second, then he passed a hand over his face, wiping away the vulnerable look. Locking it away to wait for his chance at revenge.

Thor realised belatedly that Loki had wriggled his way out of the ropes and sighed as he moved over to re-tie them. He took Loki by the shoulder, preparing to turn him around and push him to the floor as he always did, and paused. Loki _was_ carrying some extra weight. This close Thor could see the curve of his stomach, definitely new since the last time they had met. He looked Loki in the eye, curiously, and ran his hand from Loki's ribcage to his hip. There was a swell there that could only be explained one way. Loki smiled.

"It's going to be a boy," he said.

"A horse?"

"What else?"

Thor huffed a laugh. "With you?" he asked, "Anything else."

But he pulled Loki's wrists out in front of him and tied them there instead. Now if Loki fell when they were walking, he wouldn't have to fall on his stomach. Loki nodded his thanks, and settled back, watching Thor with warm eyes. "Are you a father, Thor?"

Thor paused before answering. "Sif was a mother before I married her. Ullr is a good child. Good with the bow."

Loki shrugged. "But he's not yours." Thor nodded acquiescence without elaboration. "You would be a good father, I think. Tender." Loki's hand traced the path Thor's had taken, over his belly. "Better than _Svadilfari_."

He looked so far off, so unlike himself then, that Thor slid his arm around Loki's shoulder without meaning to. Loki leaned against him. "Thor?" he breathed, "Kiss me?"

Thor hesitated. Loki was close enough that every breath he drew was stolen from Thor's lips. "This will not... change the child at all?" he asked. He did not understand the conception of a bestial child in a body like Loki's, and didn't know what was safe around his friend.

"No, Thor," Loki said with a hint of laughter, "Kissing me won't suddenly make you the father of my child. Though," he grinned, "I'm already going to tell everyone it's yours. What will Sif say?"

"I'll tell everyone it's Svadilfari's. And I am not known as the father of lies, Loki. Who do you think will be believed?"

"Suit yourself." Loki cast his eyes down. "But I... I just want to feel..." his fingers closed in the front of Thor's tunic, and his voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. "I want to feel like I'll really be a mother this time."

Thor slid his fingers up Loki's jaw, tilting his head up, and fitted his mouth to Loki's. The trickster's lips were dry, and he tasted of something Thor didn't recognise, but he responded sweetly and opened his mouth to Thor's exploration without coyness.

Thor's hands closed like a vice around Loki's wrists and Loki froze. His fingers, halfway through the act of dipping into Thor's pocket, stilled, and the stolen knife fell to the ground between them. He pulled away from Thor's mouth. "Ah," he said. "Well, it was worth a try."

Thor shook his head. "It's always worth a try with you, Loki."

Loki grinned, unashamed. "What, you thought I looked forward with joy to these punishments of the Allfather's?"

"You know, if you are so determined to avoid justice this time, you could always offer Odin the fruits of your womb." He nodded vaguely at Loki's belly. "He is in need of a new mount."

Loki gaped at Thor, horror written all over his face. "What, _give_ Odin my child?" he gasped. Thor rolled his eyes.

"Loki, you never keep them."

"That doesn't mean I'll just give them away!" He punched Thor in the arm with both fists, and Thor rubbed the sore spot.

"You always just let them go! This one could win you--"

"Hush now, Thor, stop talking. You're making yourself sound stupid. I _feel_ stupider listening to you. Shh."

Thor would have liked to repay him for that comment, but he couldn't. Loki was _pregnant_.


	3. Chapter 3

_Loki has tricked gifts out of the dwarfs. This is difficult to do, and does not come without its price, or its punishment. Thor has captured the Trickster on the run, not an easy task in itself. Loki bet his head to the dwarfs, and so will have his mouth sewn shut to stop his lying tongue._

\---

"I'm going to kill everyone who touches that thread, you know," Loki said dully, the barest hint of a humourless smile on his lips.

Thor shook his head, trying not to laugh. "This is Brokkr's revenge, Loki. Once it's done, the matter is closed. You don't get to take revenge for another man's revenge."

Loki scoffed, but the smile widened. "Says you. Brokkr's not even a man, anyway. No more than half a man, little twisted thing. Who gave Brokkr half-man leave to take twice his revenge?"

"Odin Allfather gave him leave. And he's only taking his revenge once."

"Odin Allfather is too generous. Brokkr is just a little man who can't bear the thought that he lost to a seidmadr."

Thor did laugh then, quiet enough that none but Loki would hear him, and Loki returned a small smirk. "Brokkr did not lose, Loki. Did you forget?"

Loki feigned the returning of memory, and snapped his fingers, _of course_. "You're right, he won the bet. Well that's only more reason why he should be satisfied. It can hardly be _my_ fault that he couldn't figure out how to take the agreed prize."

"Then whose fault?" Thor smiled.

Loki scratched the back of his neck, forced to raise both arms by Thor's rope wound about his wrists. "...Brokkr's?" he hazarded. "Look, Thor, I don't suppose you would let me go? Just this once, for the sake of our friendship? And to save the lives of all the hapless servants whose only crime was to hand a man a needle?" Thor chuckled and shook his head.

"No, Loki."

Loki scowled. Then pasted on a sweet smile. "Did you like the hammer, Thor? I had it made special."

A horn sounded to signal that the assembled audience was ready to receive Thor's prisoner. Thor smiled and gathered up the rope, twisting it around his arm. "It is my pride and joy, Loki, and I will not let you go."

Loki glared, but his treacherous voice was laughing nonetheless. Loki was always prone to laugh when he was afraid. "Honourless hound," he flung at Thor as the Thunderer started to pull him towards Odin's hall. "Wretched son of a goat-whore! Let me go, just this once, I won't tell anyone! Brokkr can suck my--"

He fell silent as they crossed the threshold, as if he hadn't been speaking at all, and smiled beatifically around at the gathered Aesir. To Brokkr and Eitiri, seated by Odin's side, he raised his bound hands in a friendly wave.

Thor rolled his eyes and led the trickster to the two low stools in the centre of the hall, and the needle and thread that lay there. He would have to ensure that he was the only one to touch them in Loki's presence and hope that Loki could restrain himself from plotting to murder his only friend.

Thor couldn't risk that Loki might yet do something the Allfather would deem unforgivable.


	4. Chapter 4

_Loki has discovered the worship of mortals, and decided he likes it. But he is careless with his things, and disposes of them without due regard. His casual cruelty has once again angered Odin Allfather, and once again Thor must catch him._

\---

The scars on Loki's lips stretched when he smiled. It was not handsome, but enough about Loki was beautiful already. It was striking, and made Loki seem more like the dangerous creature Thor was beginning to understand he was.

He was lying on his side on a rock shelf near the roof of the cave, reading from a scroll. Thor suspected that was solely for his benefit. There was too much water dripping down the walls to justify bringing the scroll out otherwise. Loki owned no scrolls he would wilfully destroy.

"Thor!" said the father of lies. "I didn't expect you. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Thor wrung the salt water from his beard. "Loki, I am here on the business of my father, Odin." As if Loki wasn't perfectly aware why Thor would have come.

Loki set the scroll down with a disappointed sigh. "Oh." He said.

Thor waited, for Loki to say something or do something, disappear in a cloud of smoke as he was so used to doing. But Loki just pillowed his head on his arms and watched the Thunderer. "Loki," he said. "You know what you've done wrong this time?"

"Actually, I did hope you would tell me, Odinson. There must be something for you to have chased me all the way down here."

Thor was unimpressed. In his experience, men who thought themselves innocent did not run half so fast as Loki, or a third so far. "You sank a continent, Loki. In the realm of Midgard, no less."

Loki affected surprise. "What, this is about that?" he asked. "It was only a small continent. Barely more than an island. And it's not like there was anyone on it."

"More than a hundred mortals, Loki."

Loki launched himself from the rock shelf and landed on his feet in front of Thor. Where he landed, the cave floor cratered and split, and the hollow at his feet filled with salt water. "Anyone important," he said.

Thor grunted. "Those mortals worshipped you as their god." Loki shrugged.

"They weren't very good at it. And, truly, if they chose to worship the trickster god, I did you a favour in ridding Midgard of them. Thor!" He bowed low with a flourish, "You are most welcome."

"You will return with me for punishment, Loki."

Loki rolled his eyes, then smiled, the smile Thor recognised from a hundred such encounters, and he said the same thing he always said. "Let me go this time."

Thor scoffed, but Loki held up a hand. "No don't speak -- think about it! What will Odin want done to me this time? For a crime like this, there's only one thing he would think to do to me. He'll banish me from Asgard, as if that means a thing when I can walk the sky without asking for any man's permission. Banishment, probably to some dank cave somewhere under the sea. And, Thor--" he spread his arms wide, "--look where we are! So perhaps you can find it in your heart to let me stay here. Let me live out my banishment, and let it be under my will, not his. Odin Allfather has such an idea in his mind, that he can command me..."

" _Loki._ " Thor brought Loki's rambling to an abrupt halt. "The Allfather does command you." The look Loki gave him then was almost pitying and Thor narrowed his eyes. "Why have you not made any attempt to escape?"

Loki's breath left him in a huff that Thor could _feel_ , and he was left with the impossible thought that he had somehow taken Loki by surprise. There stretched a suspended moment between them, then Loki broke and ran for the mouth of the cave, covered with the sheen of his own seidr.

His flight took him through Thor's space, though, and Thor caught him with one arm. Such was Loki's speed that the two of them were sent sprawling to the ground and they rolled once, twice before Thor slammed Loki's arms down over his head and stopped them. Loki groaned, with feeling.

"Ahh, why do I keep doing that?" Thor couldn't quite suppress his laugh at the irritation in Loki's voice. "Has anyone ever managed to run past you, Thor?"

"Once, almost. In Jotunheim." Loki grinned at the memory, and Thor pulled back some of his weight so that the smaller man could roll his shoulders. Thor had no doubt they had felt the impact. Loki hummed softly in pain.

His knee came up slowly in between Thor's legs. "So," he murmured. "How is Sif? Still satisfying you?"

Thor rolled his eyes, _please_. "Very well, thank you, Silvertongue." He knelt up, using his grip on Loki's wrists to turn him over and push his face against the wet stone floor. Loki's struggles were mostly for show, and Thor made quick work of binding his arms, and his seidr as well.

"You knew there was no real purpose to running," he said as he tightened the rope. "This can't have been your only plan. What went wrong?"

Loki lifted his head and spat seawater. "I did have other plans. But you ruined them."

"Did I indeed?"

"I planned not to be found," said Loki as Thor pulled him up to his knees and then to his feet. "I planned not to be here when I _was_ found. I planned to use one word to bring this cave crumbling in on itself, turn myself into a fish and swim away to safety."

Thor froze. He'd had enough breath to carry him to the seabed here, and now that he had rested inside Loki's underwater haven he had enough to take him back to the surface. But if Loki had trapped him down here with the water rushing in... "And how did I ruin that plan, pray tell?"

Loki's eyes were downcast, demure. "I forgot, didn't I? They only ever send _you_ to bring me back." He leaned back and upwards, Thor's hands still tight around his wrists, to press an oddly chaste kiss to Thor's neck, just where his beard gave way to the smooth skin behind his ear. Loki's lips were rough with the scars.

Thor stood in hesitation, unsure what to do with Loki like this. Unsure what to believe of his friend, who showed little enough regard for the needs of his own children, and never showed mercy to an enemy. Then Loki laughed into the hollow of Thor's throat, and Thor set both hands on his shoulders to hold him at arms' length. "Are you and I still prepared to travel Utgard together," Loki asked casually, "after the vernal equinox?"

"Perhaps," Thor allowed, letting his voice turn fondly teasing. "If the Allfather does not banish you from his realms. Then Utgard would be sadly closed to you, Loki."

That only made Loki laugh louder. "Then I expect I will have some fast talking to do, when I stand before your father. Can't be banished just now, old Gallows-man; Thor wants to go _camping_..."


	5. Chapter 5

_Loki is called Wolf-mother, and the monster Fenris Wulf has cut a swathe of blood across the realms. The creature was caught and bound with chains made of impossible things, but Tyr Odinson was maimed in the attempt. His brother Thor is honour bound to seek retribution from the one who made this happen._

\---

Loki tried again to creep into Thor's lap, and again Thor picked him up by the scruff and deposited him on the tavern table. Loki stared at him resentfully until he gave in and scratched behind his ears. When Loki was like this he would sometimes be willing to talk to Thor, but he would just as likely limit himself to communicating with mews and purrs.

He leaned his head into Thor's scratching fingers, letting Thor stroke him underneath the collar of enchanted rope that kept him in this form. Thor leaned close enough to hear the low purr. "You have gone too far, though, Loki. This time you have gone too far."

Sitting back on his haunches, Loki tilted his black furry head. _I don't understand what you're saying to me,_ he seemed to say, _I am only a cat._ Thor wasn't sure if Loki was doing it out of contrariness, or actually trying to convince him that he had collared a wildcat. But he had the same bright trickster eyes that were so familiar to Thor, and the patchy fur over his mouth where Loki had scars, and so Thor was unmoved.

Loki stretched out across the table, butting against Thor's hand when the scratches stopped and acting like he had been a kitten all his life. Thor stifled a sigh as the innkeeper approached. "Friend," she said as she placed a bowl of something hot in front of him. "I am unaccustomed to vermin in my house. You are welcome here, sir, but that--" she nodded at Loki with a look of distaste, "--is not."

Loki sprang to his feet in a second, shaking his head. He stalked up to the very edge of the table, staring at the woman, and sat down with a little _thump_. He glared intently with his too-bright cat eyes for a long moment, and Thor hid a smile behind his hand as she looked uncertainly between man and cat. Loki tipped his head to the side. "You're being very rude," he said in his natural voice. The woman yelped, and pressed her knuckles to her lips. "Is this how you treat everyone who walks in your door? It can't be, because you look like you're still in business. What sort of trade do you do, insulting your customers? I have never seen a business run like this, have you, Thor?"

"Never in my life," agreed Thor sombrely. The innkeeper gulped visibly.

"I, ah... I apologise sir, I had no idea... I didn't know that... oh!" She turned on her heel and fled the table, and Thor chuckled as he watched her go. Loki's tail whipped back and forth across the surface of the table, his ears flat against his head.

"Where are we, Thor? I think I need to come back here, after. In the form of a rat, or a swarm of insects. I'll carry all _kinds_ of plague, see how she likes me then! _Unaccustomed to vermin,_ ooh! Perhaps I ought to return as a wolf, and _eat_ all her customers!"

Loki crossed, grumbling, to Thor's bowl, rested a paw on the edge and used the other to hook out a chunk of what could have been meat. If fortune smiled, it would be something other than cat meat. Loki, tiny though he was, swallowed it down in one bite and returned to the bowl for another.

"Hungry, Liesmith?" asked Thor mildly. Loki delicately licked gravy from his paw.

"I've not eaten in many months, Thunderer," he replied. "I have been in hiding."

"Could you not have taken the form of a wolf and eaten people?" Thor's tone was not kind, but he took the wooden spoon to the bowl of stew, separating out the meat and depositing it on the table in front of the black cat. Loki sniffed at it, as cats do.

"All the realms are guarded in fear of wolf attacks," he said, as if he knew not what was responsible for that fact. Thor hesitated, unsure what to say. Loki was a closed door to him. He hadn't heard his friend laugh in more than a year.

"What of Tyr?"

"What of him?"

"Loki, you have wilfully mutilated the son of Odin. This will not stand."

Loki was silent a moment, but his twitching tail betrayed him. Thor wondered if Loki knew he was doing that. His tail stilled, and his ears relaxed before he spoke. "Odin Allfather had me mutilated, once." He bent to tear apart the small pile of stew with his sharp little teeth, and Thor's eyes couldn't help but linger on the mottled fur around his mouth. Scars that Thor had worked into his friend's skin.

Loki finished the pile of meat, and used a paw to wash his face clean. "Besides, I didn't mutilate Tyr. Tyr did that himself. He placed his own hand into Fenrir's mouth. He trusted that the wolf wouldn't swallow it."

"And who told him to trust that?"

"He sought to deceive _my_ son. He angered my child, then placed his hand in its mouth."

"Loki," Thor sighed. "Do you deny that it was your counsel that lost Tyr his hand?"

Again, Loki's tail twitched in anger. "I suggested it. He didn't have to listen. Tyr has his wits, same as the rest of us; he should think for himself if he likes his skin intact."

Thor didn't say that no one had wits like Loki. It was unfair of him to use his wits against them. But if Loki had not his wits, what did he have?

Loki, satisfied that his fur was clean, turned and jumped from the table and onto Thor's chest. His claws slid out and Thor hissed quietly as Loki left little needle pricks of blood scrambling up to his shoulder. The cat was tiny, and Thor's shoulder was broad enough that Loki could curl in around himself comfortably.

Thor bent carefully to the remains of his stew. There was cat hair in it.

"What will they do to me," Loki murmured at last, when Thor had thought he was sleeping, "when you deliver me this time? What will they do, do you think?"

Thor swallowed. "Odin Allfather is just. Your punishment will fit your crimes. Perhaps he will take your hand in payment for Tyr's."

"A just man would never have made plans to deceive Fenris Wulf." Loki chuckled, and it sounded nothing like his laugh from when he was young. "Look at me. Working up such rage over the betrayal of a beast." He heaved a sigh, his little body relaxing against Thor's neck. "I think perhaps I need to have some real children, don't I? Oh, but Thor... Where will I find a woman hapless enough to be my bride?"

Thor reached up wordlessly to run a thumb down Loki's spine, and the cat fell grudgingly into a low purr. They slept at the inn that night, Loki curled in a ball on Thor's pillow. Before he fell asleep, Thor cut the rope around Loki's neck, leaving just enough to circle and collar him, and wound the rest to stow in his pack. As long as that collar was on him, Loki was confined to the body of a cat.

If anyone could escape that, it was Loki.

When he woke, both cat and collar were gone.


	6. Chapter 6

_It is late, very late in the game, and Ragnarok owns the air. Loki has murdered the son of Odin, Balder the Bright, and has been caught. His sons by Sigyn will be slaughtered to bind him, and he will suffer torment until the end of days. Thor stands guard over him for the last time._

\---

"It's my son, Thor!" Loki hissed, twisting frantically against Heimdallr's net. "My _son!_ Please, if there is any mercy left in you, any affection in your heart for me...!" Thor stood like stone, face turned away from the disgraced god of mischief. Loki growled in frustration, desperation, "You called me your brother once, Thor!"

That broke the Thunderer's stony demeanour, and he rounded on the bound trickster, "You _killed_ my brother! Don't you dare use that word, worm!"

"Vali didn't kill anyone! Nari is a child, Thor, he's innocent!" Tears flowed freely from Loki's eyes, as Thor had seen a hundred times before. Perhaps this time they were even real. "They've done nothing, my boys, hurt no one!"

"Nor did Balder! Balder, who you have slain, Loki, and who was so beloved by all the world that only _you_ could kill him, you who never loved anything, you wicked, wretched _nithing_ \--"

"I _loved_ him, Thor, don't ever believe I didn't love him!" It was a scream, torn from Loki's throat, too raw to be anything other than the truth, but Thor gave an ugly laugh.

"You? You couldn't bring yourself to weep when his soul was on offer. You murdered him, Liesmith, and you will not escape this punishment."

Loki bared his teeth, pulled violently against the cords of the net that held him, then fell all of a sudden slack. His head down, he drew shaking breath. "...I'm sorry," he whispered, below hearing. Thor knelt in front of him, jerked his chin back up.

"Cry for him now, Loki. Let me see you cry and I might believe you."

He jerked his hand back just as Loki turned his head to bite, and Loki closed his teeth on air. "No," he spat, "I won't."

Thor could see tears standing in his eyes. This time, though, they stayed there, and Loki blinked them away. Thor stood angrily.

"Thor," Loki tried again. "My boys, they think of you as a beloved uncle. When they see you here, Thor, they'll think they're safe. They'll trust you and they won't run away. Nari doesn't know to be wary, Thor, he'll see his uncle and he'll go without thinking! You can't let this happen -- kill me, Thor, if you have to, I won't even stop you, I--"

"Be silent." Thor lashed out with one heavy boot and Loki sprawled to the ground. "You will be silent."

Loki lay where he fell, gasping. Thor groaned and stepped in, gripping Loki's hair to drag him back to his knees. Neither man missed when his foot caught in the net, snapping two cords. Not much, but enough.

"If you were to somehow make your escape," Thor said quietly, giving Loki his back, "Your family would be left without protection. Unless someone would choose to take responsibility for them. Then they would be kept well. Your sons would grow strong."

There was long, cold silence behind him. Thor did not turn. If Odin Allfather returned to an empty net, Thor would not say he had watched Loki run. Then--

"I'll not leave you my family, Thor. You can't have them."

Thor swallowed. "When the Allfather returns, Loki, you will not have another chance. You have no hope."

Loki's voice was choked, thick and full of rage. "There will be another way." He made a noise like an animal, keening, too afraid now to even laugh. "There will be."

"You cannot talk your way out of this, Loki."

"I will. Not. Leave without them. Thor, _please_."

Thor's breath caught in his throat, his chest constricting around his breaking heart. When Odin brought Loki's sons before him, Vali held Nari in his arms and reached out a hand towards their uncle Thor. When Vali tore his brother's throat from his flesh, Loki's screams burned Thor's ear. Thor's hands held Loki's wrists as he was bound, and Sigyn spat in his face as he turned to leave.

When the sky fell to eternal darkness and Loki sailed his grisly ship from the heart of Niflheim, Thor dealt a death blow to Loki's monstrous son Jormungandr. He walked nine steps with fire in his blood, and then he lay down to weep for the wrongs he had done. At last he closed his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

_A hand comes to rest in his hair, indecently gentle, working through the tangles and matted blood. Thor's eyes do not open._

 _"You've killed my son," says a voice. It is quiet as death, and Thor knows something about that now. "I ought to mourn for him. Not for you."_

 _You are Loki, Thor wants to say. You have grieved enough by now that you know the songs. Mourn us both._

 _A shifting of body, and warmth like fire comes to lie along Thor's cold back. "I might," says Loki. "I might shed a tear for you, whom I have called brother. I might cry for the feel of your hand on my wrist. If I survive you, Thor."_

 _Thor thinks that if Loki were to weep for his death he would go gladly for it._

 _"Then I will do that." Loki rises, presses a kiss to Thor's brow. His lips are a brand, and they burn worse than the serpent's poison. "When I have killed them all, my brother, then I will shed my tears." He walks away, and Thor does not hear his feet against the earth._


End file.
